I see why you have been quiet lately on the Nourishing Families board! You are a busy busy lady.
The mailer looks awesome. I might try it one week and see how we do.
Where do you buy your coconut oil?: :

I see why you have been quiet lately on the Nourishing Families board! You are a busy busy lady.
The mailer looks awesome. I might try it one week and see how we do.
Where do you buy your coconut oil?: :

Yes, I've been quiet everywhere due to working on the menu mailer. Building the new website is the latest obstacle. LOL

I buy it in 5-gallon buckets from Wilderness Family Naturals. I buy the one that's $95 for 5 gallons for cooking- no reason to buy the raw stuff only to heat it up. One bucket lasts us over a year, and it is still good when we finish it.

I am looking forward to subscribing, although I will probably not use it as an actual planner, more like a cookbook, lol. I just can't afford to have a different serving of meat every night. We have fish once a week but other than that meat is always small servings mixed into whole dishes. When 1 chicken costs $10 and a lb of ground turkey is over $3 they have to last for longer.

I am looking forward to subscribing, although I will probably not use it as an actual planner, more like a cookbook, lol. I just can't afford to have a different serving of meat every night. We have fish once a week but other than that meat is always small servings mixed into whole dishes. When 1 chicken costs $10 and a lb of ground turkey is over $3 they have to last for longer.

I will eventually be coming out with a budget version that includes a lot of meat-stretching, cheap cuts and rubber-chicken meals. That's three meals out of one chicken.

This sounds like a great menu mailer for us, we'll have to try it out. Most of the standard menu mailers wouldn't work for us because we are gluten free and keep kosher in addition to eating NT style. As long as you don't have lots of pork and shrimp in your menus we should be able to eat most of what's on your mailer.

One request: when you create the PDF for your menu mailer, could you do it so that it displays the right way up for reading on screen in a browser? I know it's possible to rotate a PDF in the adobe reader, but it's inconvenient when you view the PDF in a browser.

Can you put redirects on the old pages? That will help keep your Google page rank too.

Amanda

I can't! : : The whole reason I left Mircosoft was becuase they don't allow you to insert any HTML into your site. Drove me crazy the whole time I was there, which was why I didn't update the site as often as I wanted to. So all I was able to do was to post on each old page a link to the new site.

One request: when you create the PDF for your menu mailer, could you do it so that it displays the right way up for reading on screen in a browser? I know it's possible to rotate a PDF in the adobe reader, but it's inconvenient when you view the PDF in a browser.

I thought that had been fixed! Thanks for pointing it out, I'll get it taken care of.

So, tell me, what features would you want in a budget menu mailer? More grains and veggies, less protein? What are you looking for? I'll gladly get one up and running if I can get some solid feedback in what people are looking for.

I am a working mom, so what I would appreciate the most is a menu plan that includes meals for the freezer. I cook on the days I'm off, but the best I can expect when DH is home with the baby is getting something from the refrigerator/freezer to the oven.

Also, portions for 2? We are a small family with a baby only eating bites, so portions for 4 would leave us a huge amount of leftovers!

Thanks and I'm excited about your project. Just what people like me need! (I've tried menu planning so many times and failed miserably each time!)

I am a working mom, so what I would appreciate the most is a menu plan that includes meals for the freezer. I cook on the days I'm off, but the best I can expect when DH is home with the baby is getting something from the refrigerator/freezer to the oven.

I've had a *lot* of requests for that, but I"m struggling with how to put it together. Would I design it with one day of heavy cooking, or batch cooking throughout the week? Would it be for lunch and dinner or just dinner? Two weeks out of a month, or every week?

The problem I'm running into with the batch cooking ideas so many have brought up is that if it's just for dinner, you'll be using what I have you put into the freezer for lunch and dinner, so it won't work out in the end. Or if I plan on you having excess in the freezer that isn't used for dinners, you've got to use it for lunch. It's a logistics problem of how to set it up, but if I can get a solid direction it, it's very easy for me to do because batch cooking is how I function in real life.

I've thought about just putting out a few of the batch cooking sessions I have assembled as a one-time purchase items along with the forth-coming books.

Also, portions for 2? We are a small family with a baby only eating bites, so portions for 4 would leave us a huge amount of leftovers!

We are planning that for down the road. Right now I would suggest portioning up the leftovers into the freezer for future lunches. That's what I'm doing with ours, as we're a family of two adults and 2 kids under 5, so I'm using the leftovers to feed me &/or hubby for lunch.

As a start maybe you could add "freezer notes" to your existing menu, such as: which recipes freeze well, if they should be frozen before or after cooking, and any packaging suggestions for the freezer.

I am a working mom, so what I would appreciate the most is a menu plan that includes meals for the freezer. I cook on the days I'm off, but the best I can expect when DH is home with the baby is getting something from the refrigerator/freezer to the oven.

Also, portions for 2? We are a small family with a baby only eating bites, so portions for 4 would leave us a huge amount of leftovers!

Thanks and I'm excited about your project. Just what people like me need! (I've tried menu planning so many times and failed miserably each time!)

Go carefully...
Alison

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you're asking for Alison (if it is, then I second the suggestion!)...I would love meals that are put together and frozen uncooked--then all you have to do is thaw and put in the crockpot or oven, whatever. I love that concept and have had a hard time making it TF. Things like a chicken frozen with all the spices, etc and then reminder to soak the grain the day you are going to eat it. Am I making sense? We've had great success with our family with this type of cooking--dh loves the packets and has no problem getting things going if it's thawed and I'm still shuffling kids to ballet, choir, etc when he gets home from work. I don't mind the intense shopping trip and day in the kitchen for the freedom it brings me!

The batch cooking you're talking about might just be what I'm looking for, as well.

One other reason I prefer this type of cooking to the straight menu mailer is that it allows for me to use them at my schedule. Every time I've tried other menu mailer plans I end up buying all the food but not cooking the 6 meals in a seven day period due to leftover eating or dh doing a big soup on the weekends or eating with family, etc. Then I get off schedule with my shopping and cooking. I like the flexibility of freezer meals or batch cooking.

One other reason I prefer this type of cooking to the straight menu mailer is that it allows for me to use them at my schedule. Every time I've tried other menu mailer plans I end up buying all the food but not cooking the 6 meals in a seven day period due to leftover eating or dh doing a big soup on the weekends or eating with family, etc. Then I get off schedule with my shopping and cooking. I like the flexibility of freezer meals or batch cooking.

So perhaps what would work better is a bulk cooking menu mailer that does a batch cooking session at the beginning, then you receive instructions for thawing, side dishes, and the like for maybe 5 days of the week? Perhaps have a batch cooking session followed by 9 days of meals off of that one session? Would it work better to have a two week or one month cycle?

So perhaps what would work better is a bulk cooking menu mailer that does a batch cooking session at the beginning, then you receive instructions for thawing, side dishes, and the like for maybe 5 days of the week? Perhaps have a batch cooking session followed by 9 days of meals off of that one session? Would it work better to have a two week or one month cycle?

I've done both. I've done 10 at a time or 20 at a time. 20 is very time consuming to do, but the payoff is great. I have friends who have purchased the 20 meal plan and never followed through, though. I would certainly try either way.

My guess is that the 9 would be a good place to start and someone could do two at a time (once two are developed) or just double it for a whole month cycle if they are so inclined. Thanks for doing this!

Also, portions for 2? We are a small family with a baby only eating bites, so portions for 4 would leave us a huge amount of leftovers!

I wish I had that problem! I have 3 preschool aged children who have adult sized appetites.

My suggestion is for things that lend themselves to leftovers or freezing, is to freeze the extra portion, or eat it the next day. I use extra large pots/pans and double any recipes that lend themselves well to leftovers or freezing. Sometimes, I will have a different salad or sides etc to go with leftovers to keep variety for dh (The cook will quite happily eat the same meal 2 days in a row )

So, tell me, what features would you want in a budget menu mailer? More grains and veggies, less protein? What are you looking for? I'll gladly get one up and running if I can get some solid feedback in what people are looking for.

In a budget one I would probably prefer very few "meat and potatoes" type meals...casseroles, soups/stews, rice and occasionally pasta dishes, stir-fry dishes, stuff to go in sprouted tortillas, etc. And any kinda rubber meat, lol. (like, I like to make pot roast them make empanadas with the leftover shredded beef) The ocasional meatless but TF friendly meal wouldn't hurt either. (like a stock-based soup that has no meat or some kind of quiche, etc.) HTH.